How the British Heart Foundation Boosted Online Donations
Government, Non-Profit & Education
They decided to upgrade to Magento Commerce 2, to take advantage of the platform’s powerful native features.
When eCommerce is a life saver
Everyone knows somebody affected by heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia, or diabetes. Thankfully, every year the British Heart Foundation funds over £100 million ($130.6 million) of research into heart and circulatory diseases, and the things that cause them. It is the BHF’s research that unlocks the connections between heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, with the aim of reducing heart-related deaths. The BHF depends on donations, and with more than 720 bricks-and-mortar stores across the UK, their retail network generates £28 million ($36.6 million) in annual profit by collecting, sorting, and selling around 73,000 tons of donated goods.
The BHF started their eCommerce journey on Magento 1 Open Source. Visitors to their website make donations, or purchase CPR training kits, blood pressure monitors, apparel, and even wedding favors through the Magento platform. Steady growth in their online activity has given rise to 380,000 customers booking collections, and £4.6 million ($6 million) in annual online sales. But to keep donations growing and their research fully funded, the BHF needed to boost donations to their retail network, support internal activities, and raise the profile of the foundation. Their KPI was to increase sales by five percent. After much research they decided to upgrade to Magento Commerce 2, to take advantage of the platform’s powerful native features, including Visual Merchandising Tools, Advanced Segmentation, Staging and Preview, and Advanced CMS.
Magento Commerce gives us the scalability and flexibility to meet the needs of our supporters and customers today and into the future to raise funds for vital life-saving research.
Roger Swannell
eCommerce Manager, British Heart Foundation
Magento at the heart of things
For Roger Swannell, eCommerce Manager of the BHF, Magento Commerce 2 seamlessly integrated with their proprietary back office ERP, CRM, custom warehouse, and fulfillment order systems. Straight out-of-the-box, Magento delivered powerful native features that enabled a more streamlined purchase flow, donation upsells, and a fundraiser multi-store view. Now, when a customer adds a Fully Automatic Defibrillator to their basket, a pop up suggests an additional donation. A message reads: “With you, we’ll beat heartbreak forever.”
The BHF’s solution partner, iWeb, implemented a number of other Magento features give their backend a boost: With a fast build time, the BHF employed Advanced Segmentation, Staging and Preview, Advanced CMS, 2 Step Checkout, and Multistore capabilities. The BHF applied more complex filtering to listing pages to help users find the right products quicker, thanks to the Amasty Shop By extension. And with Amasty Infinite Scroll, users enjoy a seamless experience while browsing through pages of exciting products, like fascinator hats. Meanwhile, Wyomind data feed manager delivers multiple shopping feeds and social channels. Importantly, Magento Commerce 2 has given the BHF the ability to list products on multiple Amazon marketplaces, with real time order and inventory management. It’s important to reach their customers where they love to shop.
eCommerce with heart
“Magento perfectly compliments our large retail network and is a key contributor towards the £170 million ($222 million) donations that we receive annually,” said Swannell. Since launching in August 2018, the BHF has reported customers donating more money than ever, while integrations with the back office and warehouse have helped to streamline internal processes. Their 12-month revenue statistics reveal an 80 percent increase since switching to Magento Commerce 2. And do you remember their KPI to increase sales by five percent? They beat it, increasing sales by an impressive 39 percent. Thanks to their new webstore, online donations are up by a staggering 90 percent, and the BHF is on track reach its goal of funding £500 million ($653 million) of groundbreaking research by 2020.
Magento perfectly compliments our large retail network of more than 720 high street shops across the UK. It’s a key contributor towards £170 million ($222 million) donations that we receive annually.
Roger Swannell
eCommerce Manager, British Heart Foundation
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Originally published at https://magento.com.
